Samsung Could Release Several Tizen Based Smartphones in 2013

Samsung’s rise to fame in the smartphone industry is not a new story to us. The company started off with Android quite early and followed it up with flagships like the Galaxy S, S2 and now S3. These smartphones have been the best selling devices of their respective times and deservingly so. And with the introduction of the Galaxy Note in 2011, Samsung upped the ante in a major way. But Samsung has also thought out of the box when it came to mobile OSes. If you may recall, there was Samsung’s Bada OS which was seen on phones like the Wave, Wave II, Wave III as well as a few budget ranged smartphones. However, this didn’t make an impact on the market and Samsung didn’t bother to indulge too deep into that. But then, we heard of Samsung working on the development of the Tizen OS along with Intel. Tizen is jointly developed by Samsung, Intel and the Linux Foundation.

These companies have been working in tandem since 2011 to develop the OS and make it an easy to use open source operating system. We won’t go too deep into its history, but it is now being said that Samsung could be looking to launch multiple Tizen based smartphones in 2013. This is very good news for the team at Samsung which has been hard at work to bring the OS to the fore. It would now depend on how Samsung would market these devices, because open source platforms like these always find trouble impressing the mainstream consumer. The first Tizen based smartphone is set to arrive in Q1 2013.

The Tizen Foundation has a lot of partners which include a few carriers around the world. American carrier Sprint has agreed to be a part of the foundation and will make the devices available on its network when Tizen smartphones are launched. Also members of the Tizen Foundation are Vodafone UK and Japanese carrier NTT Docomo among others. This shows that there is plenty of support for an OS which hasn’t even launched yet, which could prove to be vital in the early days of the platform. Perhaps Samsung realizes that it can’t bank on Android for eternity, so it’s a viable option to co-develop other platforms.

It must be noted that Tizen is basically a merger of MeeGo and LiMo, so if you’ve loved what MeeGo had to offer, you will certainly take a liking to Tizen. Let’s hope Samsung unveils the upcoming Tizen smartphones at MWC or even sooner at next week’s CES event. This year will then mark the arrival of several new mobile platforms after Firefox OS, Ubuntu Mobile OS, Jolla’s Sailfish OS and of course the Tizen OS. Don’t be surprised to find similarities between the Sailfish OS and Tizen as they both have a history of MeeGo.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: we are not affiliated with the device manufacturers or phone carriers we mention in any way, all suggestions are based on our own experience and research, you may use our advice at your own discretion.